WORCESTER - Matthias Waschek is retelling the oldest stories of war and romance, heroism and death in profound new ways at the Worcester Art Museum.For the first exhibit to integrate martial treasures from the now closed Higgins Armory Museum into WAM’s fine arts collection, the museum’s innovative director has fashioned "Knights!’’ a "trans-historical’’ examination of the artifacts and art of war as illuminated by mythology, gender dynamics and pop culture.Visitors will not only see suits of armor and lethal weaponry collected by John Woodman Higgins for his namesake museum. They’ll also view Venus naked as a jaybird and a contemporary "Dark Knight’’ presiding over a very different Round Table from the one they read about in junior high school.Don’t worry, Toto, we’re still in Camelot. It’s just a different version of an old story.Like tales of King Arthur and Sir Galahad that captivated generations of youngsters, the knights in this show rode armored steeds to battle at Agincourt but also drove the Batmobile to fight crime in Gotham City.Juxtaposing arms and armor from the Higgins with classical sculpture, Renaissance paintings and contemporary photography, Waschek is nudging viewers to re-imagine everything they thought they knew about "days of old when knights were bold.’’The Higgins Armory Museum closed after 83 years on Dec. 31, when its endowment couldn’t cover building costs. Since acquiring 2,000 objects from the Higgins, Waschek said WAM has been developing a "new framework that breaks away from traditional forms of installation’’ to encourage visitors to "appreciate armor for its aesthetic and social purposes as much as its martial one.’’Waschek said the expected incorporation of the Higgins collection into WAM’s holdings by 2020 will change the institution for the better.After learning WAM would likely acquire the Higgins collection about a week before he took over in 2012, Waschek came to decide he "didn’t want to replicate their presentation that was beautiful yet problematic.’’"It was presented in a decorative 1930ish Hollywood sort of way. They were swallowed up by that space,’’ he said. "… We wanted to use the (Higgins) artworks as part of a bigger story that connects so well to our own collection.’’With input from Patrick Brown, chief preparator, and Adam Rozan, director of audience engagement, Waschek organized "Knights!’’ into five "historical and thematic’’ sections that showcase about 100 objects from the Higgins with art of varied eras from the museum.Entering the first section, "Courtly Pursuits,’’ don’t expect to find Ivanhoe’s Merry Olde England.Visitors will encounter five portraits of Italian, Spanish and Dutch noblewomen wearing the frilled collars, broadened shoulders and puffy sleeves of that era, gazing down on five armored knights arranged like chessmen as if locked in a game of wits and hormones."I had to bring women into this exhibit,’’ said Waschek. "The women’s clothes of those times were inspired by the armor. They were both dressed to kill.’’Subverting familiar expectations of chivalric conduct, Elvis Presley will croon "The Impossible Dream’’ from "Man of La Mancha.’’In the second section, "The Dance of Love and War,’’ ancient Greek armor sculpted to resemble an idealized male torso and a 17th century oil painting of "Venus at the Forge of Vulcan’’ from the workshop of Jan Brueghel the Elder are just some of the objects suggesting the conflicts buried within the often idealized relationships between knights and their fair maidens.As Brown and his staff prepared the third section, "Knights of the Round Table,’’ for the show’s opening on Friday, Waschek pointed to a life-sized figure of Batman, standing on a pedestal clad in the black armor worn by actor Michael Keaton in the 1989 film of the same name. While called the "Dark Knight’’ in comics as early as 1940, this conflicted contemporary figure has usurped the traditional place of noble and courtly Arthur, perhaps to remind visitors of the harsher realities of actual leadership in time of war.Creating a haunting effect, Waschek has fashioned the 12 knights of the Round Table plus Arthur through two facing displays of headgear from Corinthian style helmets worn by Greek hoplites around 550 B.C. to other styles worn by Bronze Age Celtic, Persian, Muslim, European and Chinese warriors in a United Nations of brothers-in-arms stretching across 20 centuries.Behind them, a selection of rare shaffrons, armor molded to protect a horse’s face in combat and, probably, to restrict its vision to make it less fearful, must have given a knight’s steed a ferocious appearance, often coordinated to match its rider’s armor.In the fourth and fifth sections, "Triumphal Arch’’ and "Corridor of Good and Evil,’’ Waschek ratchets up moral and ethical ambiguities that weren’t often featured in former displays idealizing the utilitarian beauty of deadly weapons.An imposing model that resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, visited by both Adolph Hitler and Charles de Gaulle, or the Arch of Constantine in Rome, raises perplexing questions about how symbols of victory can also suggest war’s futility and human cost."One man’s victory is another man’s defeat,’’ said Waschek who added a recorded version of the British group Queen’s rendition of "We are the Champions’’ will add an ironic counterpoint.Beauty meets lethality in the fifth section, "The Corridor of Good and Evil,’’ which begins by showcasing exotic but lethal weapons from Indian "punch’’ daggers to an elegant Japanese samurai sword, from varied swords of different styles and firearms which eventually made armor obsolete.Further debunking any idealization of weaponry, a display of contemporary photos titled "Guns without Borders in Mexico and Central America’’ from the Pulitzer Center of Crisis Reporting will remind viewers that, despite their craftsmanship, firearms are used to kill and control humans in the most brutal ways.While John Woodman Higgins’ spectacular collection has merely traveled across Worcester from its original home on Barber Avenue to its new one at the Worcester Art Museum, "Knights!’’ will transform viewers’ perceptions of these gorgeous, deadly artifacts from instruments of glory in "The Iliad’’ or "Le Morte d’Arthur’’ to murderous tools from another age."We are an art museum. When a weapon comes here (from the Higgins Armory Museum), we try to present it as art,’’ said Waschek. "But we’re not separate from life.’’Chris Bergeron is a Daily News staff writer. Contact him at cbergeron@wickedlocal.com or 508-626-4448. Follow us on Twitter @WickedLocalArts and on Facebook."Knights!’’WHEN: Opens Friday, March 28 WHERE: Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury St. INFO: 508-799-4406; www.worcesterart.org